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According to guidelines, antiviral therapy for adults with immune-active chronic hepatitis B (CHB) should be adopted to decrease the risk of liver-related complications. Fibrosis assessment during antiviral treatment is a key step in antiviral therapy evaluation. Liver biopsy is the gold standard for assessing the degree of liver necroinflammation and fibrosis. However, because of its cost and the risk of life-threatening complications, performing a liver biopsy more than once after long-term effective treatment is difficult. In this study, we aimed to evaluate changes in liver fibrosis during 5 years of entecavir (ETV) treatment using noninvasive fibrosis markers in hepatitis B e-antigen (HBeAg)-negative treatment-naive CHB patients who require antiviral therapy. A total of 303 HBeAg-negative treatment-naive patients were enrolled in this study. Liver biopsy was performed before initiation of antiviral therapy. The diagnosis of CHB was made according to Chinese guidelines for the management of CHB. Patients requiring antiviral therapy (liver fibrosis stage ≥ F2, METAVIR scoring system) were treated with ETV for at least 5 years. These patients were followed up at 6-month intervals. A clinical and virological evaluation was performed at baseline and again at 12, 24, 36, 48, and 60 months during ETV treatment. Aspartate Aminotransferase to Platelet Ratio Index (APRI) and Fibrosis-4 (FIB-4) index were used to assess dynamic changes in liver fibrosis in HBeAg-negative CHB patients after 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 years of ETV treatment. All enrolled patients underwent liver biopsy at baseline. Using the METAVIR fibrosis stages, there were 107, 125, 54, and 17 patients in F1, F2, F3, and F4 stages, respectively. The APRI and FIB-4 indexes enabled the correct identification of patients with severe fibrosis (METAVIR F3–F4), with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.77 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.72–0.83) and 0.76 (95% CI 0.70–0.82), respectively. The APRI values decreased significantly in F2 and F3 patients after 1 year of ETV therapy (P < 0.01). However, for F4 patients, APRI values decreased significantly at year 3 (P < 0.05). The FIB-4 values of F2, F3, and F4 patients who received ETV treatment were significantly decreased after 1, 3, and 5 years of ETV therapy, respectively (P < 0.05). APRI and FIB-4 values decreased significantly during 5-year ETV treatment in HBeAg-negative CHB patients, indicating that these noninvasive fibrosis tests might be useful for monitoring improvement in liver fibrosis and assessing treatment efficacy during long-term ETV treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Selected trace metals (Pb, Cd, Cu, Hg) and arsenic in seawater and surface sediments of Laizhou Bay were determined, to evaluate their spatial distribution, pollution risk and potential ecological risk. Concentrations of the elements were 0.56-2.07, 0.14-0.38, 12.70-18.40, 0.014-0.094, and 1.13-2.37 μg/L in the seawater and 8.94-32.2, 0.18-0.67, 4.51-30.5, 0.006-0.058, and 5.75-15.3 mg/kg in sediments for Pb, Cd, Cu, Hg and As, respectively. High concentrations of the trace metals and arsenic in seawater and surface sediments were generally observed near the river estuary. The pollution risk result of the elements showed that Cu was the prominent trace metal pollutant in seawater, followed by Hg, Pb, Cd and As. The metal complex pollution index in seawater was at a medium level. The most important trace metal pollutant in sediments was Cd, followed by As, Cu, Pb, and Hg. Our pollution assessment suggests that trace metal pollution in Laizhou Bay sediments was at a low level. The potential ecological risk was also low in surface sediment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports on the provision of an organic compound that not only stabilizes amorphous calcium phosphate (ACP) precipitate easily, but also adsorbs on the ACP surface, which can improve the interface between the ACP filler and polymer matrix. Use of reagent grade Na3PO4 · 12H2O, CaCl2 and poly(ethylene glycol) as starting materials; Method used to obtain the ACP precipitates; Use of X-ray diffractometry to characterize the precipitates obtained.